LANSING — Millions of dollars in casino revenue sharing and the ability for tribes to open off-reservation casinos could be at play as the state negotiates new compacts with six American Indian tribes.

Michigan has agreements with 12 American Indian tribes that operate 22 casinos in the state. Half of those compacts are set to expire Nov. 30.

Gov. Rick Snyder spokesman Dave Murray said both sides will continue negotiating beyond Saturday if necessary and that casinos would not have to close if the compact expires.

“We've worked hard to build a good working relationship with the tribes and we're optimistic the discussions will be productive,” Murray said in an email.

Saginaw Chippewa Indian Community spokesman Frank Cloutier would not comment other than to confirm negotiations are ongoing. And attorney John Petoskey, who represents the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa & Chippewa Indians, said he could not talk to the media without approval from the tribal council.

TRIBAL-STATE COMPACTS

The following six tribes are negotiating new gaming compacts with the state of Michigan.

The Saginaw Chippewa and Grand Traverse Band are among seven tribes that in 1993 signed gaming compacts with the state authorizing them exclusive rights to conduct Vegas-style casino gaming and requiring the tribes to share 8 percent of their revenues with the Michigan Economic Development Corp. and 2 percent with local units of government.

Those payments totalled more than $183 million in state revenue sharing over the years. But in 1999, six tribes quit payments, allowed under the compact, when three non-tribal casinos opened in Detroit under a voter-approved law. The seventh tribe, Keewanaw Bay Indian Community, extended its compact and agreed to continue paying the state in exchange for an additional casino site.

The MEDC received roughly $61 million last fiscal year from Keewanaw and five other tribes that have different compacts with the state. Nearly $30 million went to local governments last year as part of the 2 percent payments from all 12 tribes.

The state is looking at getting back some of that revenue sharing, but tribes will generally oppose that unless the state offers meaningful concessions, said Zeke Fletcher, a Lansing-based tribal lawyer and citizen of the Grand Traverse Band. He is not representing any tribes in the negotiations.

Traditionally, “meaningful concessions” have meant statewide exclusive rights to offer Vegas-style, or class III gaming, Fletcher said. In more recent compacts the state secured revenue sharing in exchange for more of a regional protection from competition, according to a blog post from Fletcher’s colleague, Bryan Newland.

Newland argued it “would be nearly impossible to claim that some sort of regional exclusivity would justify tribal payments matching (or exceeding) the payments required in the 1993 Consent Judgment.”

Without exclusivity, some tribes could push for state approval of so-called off-reservation casinos.

“I definitely think it’s going to be at stake. I don’t know exactly how it’s going to shake out with the compacts, but certainly it’s playing a role with this,” Fletcher said.

The Bay Mills Indian Community and Sault St. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians are both involved in legal battles over the right to open casinos on newly acquired land outside the tribe’s original reservation boundaries, in Vanderbilt, Flint Township, Port Huron and Lansing. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the Bay Mills case next month.

The state and tribes will likely end up in court if they can’t reach consensus. If all else fails, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior can act as an arbitrator and come up with a compact, Fletcher said. Either way, the compacts require approval from the Department of Interior.